STEM Week at The Academy School

In Nursery the children embraced STEM week with lots of construction activities, science investigations to see the colours pigments creep up the wet filter paper, junk modelling to let their imaginations run wild, and water play using funnels and tubes.

Reception 1 were faced with a challenge of how to help the Gingerbread Man get across the river. Their ideas impressed the teachers as they suggested rafts, trampolines, submarines, bridges and boats. The little engineers worked together to bring their creations to life using a variety of materials.

Year 1 experimented with chemical reactions mixing vinegar and bicarbonate soda together to see the fizz that it produced, and when they added food colouring, a beautiful explosion of colours was seen! They also enjoyed making, catching, popping, and playing with bubbles using our giant bubble maker!

Year 2 made marble runs in teams. Using cardboard boxes, kitchen rolls, water bottles, and lots of paper tape they worked so well together to design and create their amazing inventions.

Using plasticine and paper straws, Year 3 students had to try and build a tower. In teams they discussed their projects and they learned a lot about engineering.

Year 4 enjoyed designing and making catapults and measuring how high or far they could catapult an item. It was interesting to learn how the length of the “arm”, the force of the elastic bands and the weight of the object being launched all affected their investigation. They also worked together to create a tall tower using just spaghetti and marshmallows. They soon found that it is not as easy as it looks! They also learned a lot by creating ballon powered cars and marble runs. As well as this they had lots of fun learning how to make a stop motion animation to tell a short story.

The Year 5 looked at air resistance. They made balloon rockets and parachutes as a way of investing the effects of air resistance, streamlined shapes and friction. In geography, the group continued their work on renewable energy sources: they made their very own solar ovens to melt chocolate in.

Year 6 worked on the science of food. Whilst making pizzas they discussed which food group each ingredient belonged to, for example the tomato base belonging to fruit and vegetables and the ham belonging to proteins. The students were given a cookie that represented the Earth from which they needed to remove the chocolate chips, representing coal, without damaging the cookie with a range of tools they could choose from. The lesson was to teach students even if you are being careful removing fossil fuels you will always cause significant damage to the Earth.
All these amazing science projects are now exhibited in the hall so parents can see the great work done!